He's gotta work on the accent, "billy-uns and billy-uns", but he's got the necessary nerdly credentials.

ComingSoon wrote:The project, in a nascent stage, is anchored in real science. It was derived from a treatment by Kip S. Thorne, a Caltech physicist who's an expert on relativity. Thorne is most famous for his controversial theory that wormholes not only exist but can be accessed and used as portals for time travel.

On that note, you just know they're going to put in Thorne's bet with Hawking over the existence of naked singularities, wherein the wager was appropriately one year's subscription to Penthouse. ("Much to his wife's disgust...")

I seriously have high hopes for this movie, but at the same time Thorne isn't exactly the most interesting of theoretical physicists to tackle. If you wanna make a movie about physicists, there's probably ten different movies you can make about Feynman, and Matthew Broderick has only ruined one of them. Janna Levin's pseudo-diary "How the Universe Got Its Spots" is tailor made for a great indie movie, and JoÃ£o Magueijo should get his own movie just for writing off string theory as a theory of "cosmic BlueBittles". Thorne...I dunno, I'm worried they'll either have to dumb him down and make him unrecognizable in order to appeal to the 18-34ers, or they'll present him as is and people will find it as dry and boring as most people already find the subject..

Look fella, he spends the entire film talking about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and ends with a deliberate held shot of the WTC. As if to say, hey, y'know, everything that was started in this film ended in 9/11. Which is, frankly, bullshit - as the socio-historic reasons for the tragedy are far, far more complex than that and rooted in far more than just Black September's actions, which arguably had nothing to do with it. Black September, after all, had a deliberate political agenda to their violence which Spielberg portrayed. The mirroring of the PLO and the undercover MOSSAD agents showcased the descent in which Bana's team had found themselves spiralling in.

The WTC shot ruined what could've been a simple, poetic ending. It wasn't just a one-off shot to remind you of the time in which the movie is set, but it was a deliberate and extraordinarily clumsy device to whack you around the back of the head. Which is fucking stupid when you consider the otherwise balanced way the film played out and totally undermined what he'd set up throughout the movie.

Look fella, he spends the entire film talking about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and ends with a deliberate held shot of the WTC. As if to say, hey, y'know, everything that was started in this film ended in 9/11. Which is, frankly, bullshit - as the socio-historic reasons for the tragedy are far, far more complex than that and rooted in far more than just Black September's actions, which arguably had nothing to do with it. Black September, after all, had a deliberate political agenda to their violence which Spielberg portrayed. The mirroring of the PLO and the undercover MOSSAD agents showcased the descent in which Bana's team had found themselves spiralling in.

The WTC shot ruined what could've been a simple, poetic ending. It wasn't just a one-off shot to remind you of the time in which the movie is set, but it was a deliberate and extraordinarily clumsy device to whack you around the back of the head. Which is fucking stupid when you consider the otherwise balanced way the film played out and totally undermined what he'd set up throughout the movie.

ahhh....yes...I remember that episode where Picard suddenly decided to tell everybody to fuck off...that fun/scary hand & facial gesture he made to Counsellor Troi will be etched in my mind forever as pure and utter brilliance...

almost as brilliant as that TOS Trek where Kirk explains to a bunch of weird aliens that look like asses that he has actually gone where most men have not gone before...

Look fella, he spends the entire film talking about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and ends with a deliberate held shot of the WTC. As if to say, hey, y'know, everything that was started in this film ended in 9/11. Which is, frankly, bullshit - as the socio-historic reasons for the tragedy are far, far more complex than that and rooted in far more than just Black September's actions, which arguably had nothing to do with it. Black September, after all, had a deliberate political agenda to their violence which Spielberg portrayed. The mirroring of the PLO and the undercover MOSSAD agents showcased the descent in which Bana's team had found themselves spiralling in.

The WTC shot ruined what could've been a simple, poetic ending. It wasn't just a one-off shot to remind you of the time in which the movie is set, but it was a deliberate and extraordinarily clumsy device to whack you around the back of the head. Which is fucking stupid when you consider the otherwise balanced way the film played out and totally undermined what he'd set up throughout the movie.

So stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

To be honest I thought it was just a visual simile concerning attack and revenge.

AtomicHyperbole wrote:Look fella, he spends the entire film talking about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and ends with a deliberate held shot of the WTC. As if to say, hey, y'know, everything that was started in this film ended in 9/11. Which is, frankly, bullshit - as the socio-historic reasons for the tragedy are far, far more complex than that and rooted in far more than just Black September's actions, which arguably had nothing to do with it. Black September, after all, had a deliberate political agenda to their violence which Spielberg portrayed. The mirroring of the PLO and the undercover MOSSAD agents showcased the descent in which Bana's team had found themselves spiralling in.

The WTC shot ruined what could've been a simple, poetic ending. It wasn't just a one-off shot to remind you of the time in which the movie is set, but it was a deliberate and extraordinarily clumsy device to whack you around the back of the head. Which is fucking stupid when you consider the otherwise balanced way the film played out and totally undermined what he'd set up throughout the movie.

So stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

That's a hell of a lot of inference to take from what is, after all, a shot which has appeared in thousands of movies and TV shows. Not saying you're totally wide of the mark, but I think you may be projecting a teeny bit there. I actually thought the final scene was pretty terrible too, but not because of the WTC shot, I just thought the dialogue was a tad weak and the scene felt superfluous to requriements.

Look fella, he spends the entire film talking about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and ends with a deliberate held shot of the WTC. As if to say, hey, y'know, everything that was started in this film ended in 9/11. Which is, frankly, bullshit - as the socio-historic reasons for the tragedy are far, far more complex than that and rooted in far more than just Black September's actions, which arguably had nothing to do with it. Black September, after all, had a deliberate political agenda to their violence which Spielberg portrayed. The mirroring of the PLO and the undercover MOSSAD agents showcased the descent in which Bana's team had found themselves spiralling in.

The WTC shot ruined what could've been a simple, poetic ending. It wasn't just a one-off shot to remind you of the time in which the movie is set, but it was a deliberate and extraordinarily clumsy device to whack you around the back of the head. Which is fucking stupid when you consider the otherwise balanced way the film played out and totally undermined what he'd set up throughout the movie.

So stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

I think this is more something that you are bringing to the movie - I certainly didn't read it that way - I thought the scene and that shot was pretty eloquent , not head-whackingly clumsy

The final shot in Munich was not meant to imply that the Munich massacre or Israel's response was in any way directly connected with 9/11. it was a symbolic reminder of the film's themes, that violence and revenge are cyclical and that they solve nothing. that seemed fairly obvious, i thought. agree or disagree with speilberg's message all you want, but make sure it's the right message. if you think spielberg is drawing a direct connection between munich and 9/11, you're taking that last shot way too literally.

i did not like Contact, for two main reasons: 1) i read the book, and 2) matthew mcconaughey. i don't inherently hate mcconaughey, but he was completely miscast in that role. and ellie's journey through space and meeting with the alien was anticlimactic and nowhere near as compelling as in the novel. the book had some very deep philosophical, scientific and mathematical concepts that were dumbed down in the film, which really hurt the last part of the film dealing with the themes of faith and belief. if i hadn't read the book, maybe i would have accepted the movie more easily, but having read the book, the movie was a pale imitation.

TheBaxter wrote:but having read the book, the movie was a pale imitation.

That easily applies to 99% of film adaptations from books. I understand your argument but the rarity of film adaptations better then their literary origins makes this essentially an unstated truth when talking books to films. As such I almost never try to compare the two except when the film is obviously better......like Goldfinger. Still I understand completely how you were disappointed by the gap betwixt them.

TheBaxter wrote:but having read the book, the movie was a pale imitation.

That easily applies to 99% of film adaptations from books. I understand your argument but the rarity of film adaptations better then their literary origins makes this essentially an unstated truth when talking books to films. As such I almost never try to compare the two except when the film is obviously better......like Goldfinger. Still I understand completely how you were disappointed by the gap betwixt them.

I agree, but in the case of Contact i think the disparity between the book and the movie was greater than most. some depth and details are always lost when going to film, but in the case of Contact i felt the meaning and purpose of the book's main themes got lost. that said, i'm not entirely sure if any filmed version would have been capable of presenting the complexity of the ideas in that book, so it may have been unfair to expect that.

You can read whatever you want into that Twin Tower shots really. It's open to interpretation. You can even say that it's symbolic of you and me comparing the size of OUR erections when we saw Helena Christensen walk past us in New York City (you remember that?) I'd say you're wrong AK in saying that the Black September events lead to 9/11, but that's just an opinion. My interpreation is that it shows us how the war against Terrorism will always be continuing and will always have it's casualties, therefore there is no happy ending to the movie and there, presently, is no solution to it's outcome or with terrorism, violence, war, my posts, my quest to establish absolute control and power over the Zone, in the future.

So yeah, TITG, who went to see Munich with me and show each other OUR twin erections in the theatre, I'm totally with you there and respect your intelligennt opionion of this movie and Spielberg's career in fil.......

I'm not saying that Black September had anything to do with 9/11, it's just one of the things that final shot implies, or can be interpreted as such. It's not needed and reeks of a cheap device that the movie didn't require. It already had set up its themes, it didn't need a "modern day reminder". By doing so it took me, personally, away from the picture and what he'd set up through implication.

@Baxter - I don't think you're pov is any less right than mine. Only Spielberg knows what he's implying, but with any art it's open to interpretation. Still, a final lingering shot of the two towers, which were destroyed through acts of Islamic terrorism, not rooted in politics but wronged religious ideology, seemed peculiarly tacked-on.

How else are you supposed to take it other than literally? It's one of the most deliberate devices he could've used in taking the themes of the film into modern times, only their destruction doesn't stand for what Black September were trying to achieve.

You can dilly dally about it being merely about cyclical violence, but you can't ignore the other quite literal context regardless of whether it was Spielbergs intention.

Cpt Kirks 2pay wrote:So yeah, TITG, who went to see Munich with me and show each other OUR twin erections in the theatre, I'm totally with you there and respect your intelligennt opionion of this movie and Spielberg's career in fil.......

"BEST SINCE JP!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????"

You LIKED that movie!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????????

Oh God, If I was a Mod TITG!!!!

IPAMPILASH

Hey, what's wrong with JP? I was only 16, but I seem to remember the CGI rocking my world. But thanks for the reminder of our Munich dink-comparison fest! I recall coming out of the theater feeling unexpectedly confident about myself!

Back on topic, this can't be good. Just because. I've lost 98.987243958745% of my faith in Spielberg ever doing a good scifi movie again. He should stick to adult thriller/drama like Munich. That was gold. Hah hah, get it??? GOLD?! I kill me.

Can we at least get a time travel movie where something epic happens? I'm so tired of these lame ass flicks where they go back and create some new problem for the future. "Oh no, a paradox!" You'd think if someone could create a time machine they'd actually think out their plan to go back in order to prevent the problems to the future. Then again, if they were meant to go back then time wouldn't change at all. God, now I know why writers created alternate realities and parallel worlds. Helps explain time travel way better and make it writable.

Give me something dark along the lines of Twelve Monkeys which is at least semi-plausible time travel.

alternate realities superfically seem plausible as a solution to time travel paradoxes but when you unravel the logic they make no sense. Too difficult to explain why without a pencil and a piece of paper though.

So. Anyway. Is this movie dead? Now that Spielberg's roving eye has fallen on a book that hasn't even been published yet (for God's sake, Steven, change the frigging title) is this inriguing movie going the way of his Liam Neeson as Lincoln biopic?

“Interstellar”What Killed It? Hard to say. Along with “The Rivals” and “The Trial Of The Chicago Seven,” this is one of the many orphaned Steven Spielberg projects over the years that no one else had tackled. Interest in “Interstellar” apparently peaked in 2007, when Jonathan Nolan rewrote an acclaimed screenplay by Kip Thorne that centered on the hard science-fiction premise of adventurers using wormholes to travel to different dimensions. In March, interest reignited when Nolan switched to Spielberg’s agency, suggesting the collaboration was in the offing. Since then, Spielberg has pushed forward with two 2011 releases, “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn” and “War Horse,” before moving into the long-gestating “Lincoln” and “Robopocalypse,” with chatter about an unneeded fifth installment in the “Indiana Jones” series continuing to threaten.

How Can It Be Resurrected? Spielberg’s shooting commitment to “Robopocalypse” seems tenuous, and it’s a ways off anyway, so why not pawn off that secondhand project and go for gold? “Interstellar” sounds like the kind of adventurous cinema we used to expect from Spielberg, and we can’t imagine he’d be so afraid of a challenge that he’d ignore a script by the beloved Nolan brother.

Borys Kit & Kim Masters wrote:With his Batman trilogy now complete, Christopher Nolan has found his next project.

According to multiple sources, Nolan has set his sights on a sci-fi project titled Interstellar, which he is in talks to direct and produce. The project involves time travel and alternate dimensions in a story that sees a group of explorers travel through a wormhole. The script is based on scientific theories developed by a Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist, a gravitational physicist and astrophysicist at Caltech.

Sources say that dealmaking has been underway for months and is described as very complex.

Interstellar is set up at Paramount but would be made by both Paramount and Warner Bros., where Nolan and his Syncopy banner are based and for which he has made the three Batman movies as well as Insomnia and Inception. (The Prestige was made for Disney.)

The script for Interstellar was written by Jonathan Nolan, Chris' brother, who worked on The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight, as well as Prestige. Jonathan Nolan (known as Jonah) also has a "story by" credit for Memento, Chris Nolan’s breakout movie.

Steven Spielberg was previously attached to direct Interstellar and produce with Lynda Obst. It is unclear if Spielberg will remain involved, especially considering the director's planned next movie, Robopocalypse, was delayed indefinitely on Wednesday.

Regardless of how a deal shakes out, Interstellar has all the elements that seem to attract Nolan. Apart from his brother’s involvement, there is the complex and multi-layered nature of the story.

Borys Kit & Kim Masters wrote:With his Batman trilogy now complete, Christopher Nolan has found his next project.

According to multiple sources, Nolan has set his sights on a sci-fi project titled Interstellar, which he is in talks to direct and produce. The project involves time travel and alternate dimensions in a story that sees a group of explorers travel through a wormhole. The script is based on scientific theories developed by a Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist, a gravitational physicist and astrophysicist at Caltech.

Sources say that dealmaking has been underway for months and is described as very complex.

Interstellar is set up at Paramount but would be made by both Paramount and Warner Bros., where Nolan and his Syncopy banner are based and for which he has made the three Batman movies as well as Insomnia and Inception. (The Prestige was made for Disney.)

The script for Interstellar was written by Jonathan Nolan, Chris' brother, who worked on The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight, as well as Prestige. Jonathan Nolan (known as Jonah) also has a "story by" credit for Memento, Chris Nolan’s breakout movie.

Steven Spielberg was previously attached to direct Interstellar and produce with Lynda Obst. It is unclear if Spielberg will remain involved, especially considering the director's planned next movie, Robopocalypse, was delayed indefinitely on Wednesday.

Regardless of how a deal shakes out, Interstellar has all the elements that seem to attract Nolan. Apart from his brother’s involvement, there is the complex and multi-layered nature of the story.

Nolan is repped by WME and Bloom Hergott.

That sucks. I had hoped Speilberg was going to do this - not that I don't think that Nolan would be fucking amazing with something like this, but I guess I just wanted to see ol' Steve go Full Geek.

Achievement Unlocked: TOTAL DOMINATION (Win a Werewolf Game without losing a single player on your team)

MIKE FLEMING JR wrote:News also broke last night that The Dark Knight Rises helmer Christopher Nolan has focused his attention on Interstellar, which could only have happened after Spielberg decided it wasn’t a good fit for him. Spielberg set up the project in 2006 after becoming intrigued by Caltech physicist and relativity expert Kip S. Thorne and his scientific theory that wormholes exist and can be used for time travel. Paramount (after it bought DreamWorks) signed on a year later and set Jonah Nolan to write it. The Nolan siblings obviously work well together (Jonah hatched the short story that became Christopher’s first hit Memento, and they collaborated on two Batfilms and The Prestige.

Insiders tell me that Christopher Nolan is writing a script that merges an original idea of his with the script that Jonah wrote. It will retain the title Interstellar, and the ambition for the project is a film that will depict a heroic interstellar voyage to the farthest borders of our scientific understanding. If it all pans out, he’ll direct. Nolan’s unofficial home studio, Warner Bros, has been kissed into the deal as a co-production partner with Paramount, and Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas are producing with Lynda Obst. Jordan Goldberg is joining as exec producer alongside Thorne, who’ll remain on as technical consultant.

Mike Fleming Jr. wrote:EXCLUSIVE: Here’s an intriguing casting possibility to chew on going into the holiday weekend. I’m told Christopher Nolan has offered the male lead of his next film, Interstellar, to Matthew McConaughey. The character’s name is Cooper and while there is no deal yet, who says no to Nolan? The project is a co-production between Paramount and Warner Bros. Interstellar was originally set up in 2006 by Steven Spielberg, when Paramount owned DreamWorks, and after Spielberg became intrigued by Caltech physicist and relativity expert Kip S. Thorne and his scientific theory that wormholes exist and can be used for time travel. It was Spielberg who set Jonah Nolan to write the script, which made it easy for Christopher Nolan to come aboard after Spielberg left the project. After all, the Nolan siblings have a collaborative track record, with Jonah hatching the short story that became Christopher’s first hit Memento, and following that with two Batfilms and The Prestige. Christopher Nolan signed on in January to write a script that merged an original idea of his with the script that Jonah wrote. The ambition is a film that will depict a heroic interstellar voyage to the farthest borders of our scientific understanding. Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas are producing with Lynda Obst. Jordan Goldberg is joining as exec producer alongside Thorne, who’ll remain on as technical consultant.

Getting details on a Nolan project is more difficult than getting the line on the Pope selection process, so there’s no comment here. If McConaughey indeed signs on, what an intriguing turn for his career. After starting off in Dazed And Confused and A Time To Kill, this good old boy wanted to do dramas and action but seemed mainly to be successful as half of a love pairing in a romantic comedy. Much has changed with recent diverse films like Lincoln Lawyer, Bernie, Killer Joe and especially Magic Mike, the latter of which won him an Independent Spirit Award and has Hollywood seeing him in a different light. He has followed with The Wolf Of Wall Street and Dallas Buyer’s Club, but starring in Nolan’s big sci-fi film would be seismic. I just hope that it makes it possible for McConaughey to finally make The Grackle, one of the funnier scripts I’ve read. McConaughey is repped by CAA.

It's a Christopher Nolan film, so the odds are it will be about a brooding, handsome, well-dressed, white collar perfectionist guy with lots of hair gel who is motivated to push himself to extremes after the death of a woman.

Paramount Pictures, a division of Viacom, Inc., and Warner Bros. Pictures announced today that principal photography on “INTERSTELLAR” is officially underway in Alberta, Canada. The film will be released in IMAX® and 35mm theaters on November 7, 2014. Paramount Pictures will distribute domestically, Warner Bros. Pictures internationally.

Directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan (“Inception,” “The Dark Knight” Trilogy), the production will travel the globe and utilize a mixture of 35mm anamorphic and IMAX film photography to bring to the screen a script based on the combination of an original idea by Nolan and an existing script by Jonathan Nolan, originally developed for Paramount Pictures and producer Lynda Obst. The new script chronicles the adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.

The film is being produced by Academy Award® nominee Emma Thomas (“Inception,” “The Dark Knight” Trilogy) and Lynda Obst (“How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” “The Siege”). Renowned theoretical physicist Kip Thorne is consulting on the film as well as serving as executive producer, along with Jake Myers (“Jack Reacher,” “RED,” “RED 2”) and Jordan Goldberg (“Inception,” “The Dark Knight” Trilogy).

Tatiana Siegel & Stephen Galloway wrote:Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros.' eight-year union was considered one of the more successful co-financing partnerships in Hollywood history. So it should come as no surprise that the two companies are working out some shared custody with their cinematic offspring.

Sources tell THR that before its June split with Warners, Legendary negotiated to retain a hefty stake in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi tentpole Interstellar, starring an ensemble including Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Casey Affleck. The arrangement still is being finalized, but sources say Legendary will finance 25 percent or more of the big-budget project, which began shooting Aug. 6 in Alberta, Canada. The move adds a third backer, along with Paramount, which will release the film domestically Nov. 7, 2014 (Warners is spearheading international).

Back in March, it was reported that Legendary would not have a financial role in Interstellar despite having helped bankroll Nolan's Batman trilogy as well as his megahit Inception. But when its Warner Bros. divorce proceedings began, Legendary came to the bargaining table with an option to board the follow-up to Man of Steel, which it helped finance. Sources say Warners CEO Kevin Tsujihara wanted to keep the studio's DC Comics properties to itself and instead offered Legendary a stake in Interstellar. Considering Nolan's last three films as a director (The Dark Knight, Inception and The Dark Knight Rises) have grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide combined, Legendary CEO Thomas Tull jumped at the opportunity.

Legendary, which signed a massive co-financing and distribution deal with Universal Pictures in July, remains entangled with Warners for some time on several projects. Those include the fantasy film Seventh Son, which Legendary fully financed. The studio recently pushed the Jeff Bridges/Julianne Moore starrer to Jan. 17 -- a less-than-desirable release date, though January has proved a successful launching ground for genre fare in recent years.

Other future projects that find Warners still in business with Tull include Noam Murro's upcoming 300: Rise of an Empire (March 7) as well as Godzilla, for which Legendary assumed 75 to 80 percent of the budget. Godzilla is set to bow May 16, in the summer corridor, which Legendary hopes will be kinder than it was to July's Pacific Rim. That film cost nearly $200 million and has grossed $344.4 million.

Meanwhile, several Legendary projects once expected to be distributed via Warners no longer are poised for that treatment. Warcraft, based on the popular video game, had not been submitted to Warners at the time of the split, so Legendary instead will show it to Universal in the next few months. The same is true for Hot Wheels, Mass Effect and Cyber, a Michael Mann movie starring Chris Hemsworth. Universal now will decide which of these pictures it wants to come aboard to co-finance.